Wingless
Authors: Taylor Lavati
Tags: #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Paranormal & Urban, #Teen & Young Adult
Copyright © 2014 Taylor Lavati
Wingless
Book One
Taylor Lavati
Copyright © 2014 Taylor Lavati
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means including photocopying, recording or by an information storage and retrieval system, without permission of the author.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual person, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The use of these trademarks is no authorizes, associated with or sponsored by the trademark owner.
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 1500951390
ISBN-13: 978-1500951399
Editing by PROSE & Cons Editing
Cover Design by Danielle Rose
To contact the author, please visit her website:
www.taylorlavati.com
PROLOGUE
I never thought that I'd be here. The obvious reason being that I'm an Angel—or at least I thought I was. The Lower Veil is nothing like I expected it to be, though. Now that I've made it here, I'm starting to think that maybe I could fit in. Since it's so obvious that the Angels don't want me, maybe the Demons do—specifically the king of Demons, since he's the one who kidnapped me, dragged me down a huge, black hole, and then locked me in this dungeon-like room.
"Annie, please hurry. Dinner is waiting and you know my wives wait on no one."
Speaking of the Demon king…
"One minute!" I yell back as I survey myself in my chambers. I'm hiding in the bathroom, which is monstrous in size—it has more space than anything I've ever been in, including my house on Earth. There's some wear and tear on the appliances, but it is the Lower Veil after all, so I don't know what else I'd expect to see.
The mirror I stare into is cracked along the edge, a spider-like vein shooting across the center of the glass. Everything in this place is broken, but nobody cares. The castle isn't made to accommodate or to feel safe. It's here to house Demons.
I hear his footsteps retreat down the long, black hall I know to be just outside my door and let out a sigh of relief. Just looking at the man has my palms sweating and my body trembling. He scares me—for many different reasons. The obvious reason being that I was brought here against my free will and under very false pretenses. He took me away from my safety. At a point in my life, I thought
he
was safe. I trusted him, and he betrayed me in the sickest way possible.
But, I'm better now.
Yet, it doesn't make it any easier to be stranded here.
I glance one last time at myself and idly wonder how this all came to be. My plain, brown hair hangs lifelessly down to my waist in subtle curls. My normally green eyes are dull and tired. They ache from being in the dark for over a week now. I look old, worn down, heavy bags where pale skin used to be. I hardly recognize myself.
I've changed.
I touch my reflection with my pointer finger, and then leave the bathroom adjoined to my chambers. It's really just a jail cell in the highest tower in the Demon kingdom. I'm never allowed to leave without permission. I'm not allowed to do anything, unless the king allows me.
My only saving grace was that the king healed me from a rough Demon fight on Earth. I almost died at the hands of a monster for no reason at all, other than I thought Demon hunting was fun and my calling in life. It sounds so childish, thinking back to my time on Earth.
I was stupid, hateful. I was vengeful and carried a grudge against all the Angels from the Veil. They turned their back on me, but I turned my back on them, too. I can't blame them for their actions against me. They were warranted. But I couldn't move past it and just accept my fate.
Now look where I am? I'm stuck in the Lower Veil, a place I can honestly say I never wanted to experience. I remember my mother once read me a book as a child. It was about the Lower Veil and how scary and dangerous it was believed to be. The book claimed that there were red Demons that resided in the black castle with snake-like tongues, licking and biting with their fangs at anyone who dared to enter. It said that you could barely breathe, because the air was so thick with people's souls rotting away and contaminating the air.
Of course, I believed every word that tumbled out of her mouth. I believed them all.
But here I am, in the Lower Veil, breathing the air. Nobody is licking at me or attacking me. In fact, most of the Demons accept me as the king's plaything—his conquest from his time on Earth. I'm an abomination that the king found and stole.
I quickly exit my chambers, not wanting to upset the king and his court. I've memorized the way to the dining hall, so I make quick work around the labyrinth-like hallways. The dining hall is the first opening after the hall, and it's quite expansive.
I take my seat in the main dining room next to the king, across from one of his wives. I believe this one is named Percy, although they all look alike. They have long, nearly black hair that falls down to their butts. They have light eyes, with sharp noses and cheeks. They're all equally beautiful in similar ways.
They're all also equally scary. Their eyes are light, but they're anything but soft. They cut through the air and burn you with their intensity. They're cold, hard, and aggressive. They only ever speak when they're angry and their voices are like a man's—deep and throaty.
A large piece of red cake with thick, brown frosting is placed in front of me from a waiter, daring me to take a greedy bite. It's crazy how things always change. My whole life, I lived in the Veil where food wasn't ever around. We could only eat on birthdays and even then it was a sliver of your favorite cake, and we had to share with everyone. When I was banished to Earth, I allowed myself to indulge in any food I wanted since it was always available. It's one of my many things I miss.
Currently, I'm feeling very emotional, and I begin to miss it all. I miss the people, my Nephalem family from Earth, my Angel family from the Veil, my best friend, Perry, the smells, the coldness in the air.
But wanting and missing are such useless needs to me. I need to remember my past—all that's happened to me that led me to this point. The Veil didn't want me, I couldn't last on Earth, so the Lower Veil it is. I'm stuck in a state of perpetual abandonment.
I guess there was a moment when I had a glimmer of hope.
But that hope dripped between my fingers like water, teasing me with each droplet slowly falling between my grounded feet. I still see his aquamarine eyes at night in my dark cell, filled with worry. They will me to find happiness in this dark time. But they're always just out of my grasp.
PART ONE
Annie
CHAPTER ONE
Last Day
It's my last day in children's school. In three days, my sixteenth birthday will be here, and I will be a real Angel. I quickly dress in my uniformed outfit and meet my Guardians at the bottom of the stairs. My mother Guardian has tears in her eyes—like usual.
"Soon these stairs will be gone," my mother says, looking at the stupid set of stairs. How she finds these stairs nostalgic is beyond me. She looks up and down at me, but she's not happy. "I thought you'd wear a dress on your last day."
"I hate dresses." I narrow my eyes on her, because for every single second of my life, I've hated dresses. She knows this, yet she refuses to just understand me. "I'm training today, anyway, so I can't wear a dress."
"Let me at least fix your hair." She comes over to me and starts twisting my hair into some big pile on the top of my head before I can even reject her. I have long hair, and it's as thick as it gets. I don't know what to do with it most of the time so I just let it hang, but of course, my mother Guardian won't accept that.
It's lazy.
"I have to run, Angels." My dad comes into the front room and wraps his arms around the group of us in a big hug. I groan at how annoying they are, but try to stifle my aggravation. In a few days, I'll be gone and, most likely, missing them.
"Have a good day at work, Val," my mother says, kissing him on the cheek. Their baby blue wings clash and wrap around them like a cage, so I'm blocked from witnessing their affection.
"Are you kidding me?" I groan as they continue to make out like young Angels. "I'm out of here!" I yell as I step out of the house, shutting the white door behind me.
We're still stuck living in the young Angel community. Couples with children who don't have wings yet are forced to stay here instead of the main city, which is just a quick fly through the air. Since I'm wingless, I have to attend school and do mundane human things until my big birth hour.
The worst part is that without wings, I can't get around the best parts of the Veil. The only way I can even visit my best friend, who just got her wings recently, is if she flies over and literally picks me up. It's traumatizing, degrading, and I just hate it.
Luckily, I'm not completely alone. My boyfriend, Tab, still doesn't have wings, so we're suffering in school together. He has another month before he turns sixteen and gets his wings on his birth hour. While it's unfortunate that he'll be stuck here alone for that month, I'm happy that it's not me left behind.
I walk down the white path that leads from my house to Tab's. It's a normal day in the Veil. I thought that maybe I'd feel different as I walked around, but I don't. The air is still perfectly clean, and the temperature is still moderately calm. Nothing has suddenly switched from white to any other color. Boring.
I find an identical house to mine just a few steps away from my home. They're all identical, but this one is Tab's Guardians' place, and I knock on the front door. Both of Tab's Guardians are Princers, just like mine, which means that they make sure that things are going smoothly in the Veil. It's a boring job, and one I don't wish to have.
"Hello, Annie," Tab's Guardian, Lina, says as she swings open the door. Tab looks just like her—with their light brown hair and light brown eyes, it's hard to tell them apart. Their dark coloring only makes them that much prettier.
"Bye, mother!" Tab says as he barrels down the stairs and meets me right at the door. He's always running, always moving fast, two steps ahead of the other guys. It's something I admire about him.
"Bye!" I yell over my shoulder as Tab spins me around. Tab reaches for me, clasping his hand around mine, and we begin our fast walk to the school. It's about a five-minute walk, which isn't bad, especially since Tab and I both like to walk faster than normal. I ask Tab about his day since he had a job test last night and listen intently the entire walk there.
Tab is an Angel of determination, but he still needs a job. He can pretty much be whatever he wants to be, which is something I envy. I finished all of my testing, but am still wondering what I will end up doing with my life.